News

News

Thursday, June 23, 2016
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RQI is Coming to Town

A new program designed by the American Heart Association has made staying up-to-date with lifesaving information a whole lot easier, and beginning in JulyMemorial Health System will be the first in this area to offer the program.

The Resuscitation Quality Improvement program, known as RQI, was designed to keep both the cardiopulmonary resuscitation and advanced cardiac life support skills, as well as cards, constantly updated. For CPR and ACLS the skills were required to be updated every two years, meaning every two years a person would have to take the time to retake a class. With that type of program people often forgot what they learned in between the two years. The RQI program allows people to attain the most current skills, which lead to the best response to a cardiac arrest emergency.

“Since the program refreshes skills and knowledge every three months, it keeps people continually current,” Education Services Specialist Claire Mendenhall, said. “They’re not going two years between CPR or ACLS classes. Studies show that hospitals that have the RQI system tend to have better patient cardiac arrest outcomes because the staff is constantly updated.”

The program works by having carts with manikins placed on them conveniently located throughout the building. Then staff members go to an RQI cart every three months and complete a five-to-eight minute skill session on the cart’s manikins. The American Heart Association requires the person to obtain a current card before being entered into the RQI system. For people who have never had a CPR or ACLS class, they will need to complete the traditional course before they are put into the RQI system.Once in the RQI system, staff compliance will be tracked so individuals do not fail to complete the required modules.The RQI system sends an email to employees each quarter as a way to remind them.

This new training technology is only being used by larger hospitals such as Ohio State University Hospital, Cleveland Clinic and soon to be MHS.There will be seven manikin carts at MHS for staff convenience. Manikin carts will be located at Marietta Memorial Hospital on the second, third and fourth floor, as well as in the Emergency Department and in Surgery. There will be a cart on the Selby Campus and at the Belpre location also.

Unlike most CPR and ACLS classes, employees’ access to the carts is not limited; they don’t need to schedule anything. It’s designed so that if an employee has a few minutes they can simply go to any cart location and complete his or her training, and after they will have the most recent information to give MHS’ patients the best quality care.

The Memorial Health System: The Memorial Health System is a not-for-profit integrated health system governed by a volunteer board of community members that are committed to providing comprehensive services that meet the needs of our region. We are a network of services provided by over 2,500 employees and include two hospitals, outpatient service sites and provider clinics. We partner with our providers to deliver quality care and service with an additional focus on medical education and community service. You can learn more by visiting www.mhsystem.org.

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Our wait times are updated every 15 minutes. The wait time provided displays the amount of time (in minutes) that it takes for a patient to see a qualified medical professional from the time of their arrival at the Emergency Room or Physicians Care Express location. The wait time displayed represents a rolling-average of the previous 120-minutes for all patients who are currently visiting our Emergency Room or Physicians Care Express locations.